Rank points are earned at the end of a match and are based on whether your team won or lost. You may get fewer points if you join an already running match, or if you score too few personal points. Additionally, being auto-balanced provides you with an additional 25 rank points, and each top-stat you earn gives you another 5.

For every 10 ranks earned a new finisher is unlocked for the account. This can also be displayed through the /rank command anywhere except for inside a WvW battleground, underwater, or during a structured PvP match.

With the release of Heart of Thorns, each 10 ranks also unlocks a new jungle themed PvP Reward Track which must then be completed to gain a Mordrem variation of the respective rank finisher. These Mordrem rank finishers have an overall green hue and contain thorns around the banner. All of them use the same base model except the Mordrem Dragon Finisher which has a Heart of Thorns legendaryWyvern instead.

In the December PvP update, the command /rank was updated to allow /rank [rank_level] to show any unlocked rank finisher. (e.g. /rank 43 spawns the tiger rank finisher if it is unlocked in the account).